


So Where's Our Happy Ending?

by lzg



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Disability, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 22:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16147076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lzg/pseuds/lzg
Summary: They're the ones who enabled the happy endings for literally everyone else (except the bad guys).  Where's theirs?





	So Where's Our Happy Ending?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Batdad (MizGoat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizGoat/gifts).



> Damn you and your requests, giftee. I was supposed to clean my house this afternoon. _Damn it._
> 
> Warnings for mention of mental and physical aftereffects of getting a chunk of your brain ripped out and of being tortured and involuntarily turned into a cyborg. Mention of what might have been a m/m/f threesome, but a good time was had by all.

This was supposed to be the happy ending, damnit. Why couldn’t they get just one fucking break?

He’d saved Tup from the Kaminoans who wanted to dissect him, from the chip that was making him insane, from a Chancellor who was a traitorous, murderous, kriffing bastard Sith. With what the Sentinels had pulled off the chip in Tup’s head, they’d saved the entire karking Jedi Order and probably the Republic too. In the end, a revolt among the Jedi, led by Commander Offee of all people, got the chips removed from every clone and full Republic citizenship rights for every member of the GAR.

He’d saved Echo from those bastards in the Techno Union and Admiral Trench. Evidence of the Union’s treachery had destroyed the neutrality they’d relied on to profit from the war and companies couldn’t pull out fast enough. It started a domino effect on the other commerce guilds, with the new Chancellor wielding the Union’s betrayal like a sledgehammer to slam through brutal reforms and audits. The money and tech the Separatists ran on was gone now. The shield of wartime “need” protecting the commerce guilds had shattered.

The Jedi were alive, both they and the Republic were rebuilding and reforming, the clones were free. Happy endings all around.

Except for Tup, whose memory flitted about from day to day. Their house on Alderaan was covered with reminder notes, half of whose reminders were meaningless, because Tup couldn’t remember what they were about even when he saw what he’d written down. The only thing he remembered consistently was firing his blaster into General Tiplar’s face. That he never forgot. Whenever Fives touched Tup, he was never sure that Tup was entirely there. Once Tup had called out Dogma’s name in bed and…why was it fair that that Fives could get his first love back when Tup never would?

Except for Echo, who most days couldn’t stand to look at himself or have anyone touch him. He hid himself in corners around the house, when he could stand to be inside. Since the place Bail had given them was on the shores of a mountain lake in a wilderness preserve, there was plenty for him to disappear in outside as well. After the week when Echo had hidden in the forest slopes with a bag of rations, refusing to come in for anything, Fives had slipped a tracker in his boots, then had a heart attack when it shorted out in the middle of the lake. Echo had found it and been displeased.

They were quietly getting better, though.

Tup had a datapad with slaved wristcom that worked better than the notes, cross-referencing things and giving him reminders to take his medications, eat lunch, whatever it was that he’d typed in this morning to do this afternoon, a map of Alderaan’s surface down to the square meter with inertial location tracking. Strangely, being able to rely on that actually seemed to be helping his memory. The instances where he drifted off were less and less. Maybe once he had more of a handle on his memory, Fives could try to talk him into seeing the mind healer to deal with the memories of General Tiplar again.

Echo at least ate with them on a daily basis. While he was still pissed about Fives tracking him, seeing Fives and Tup hurl themselves out of the house towards the lake, screaming Echo’s name, and throwing themselves into the frigid autumn water had driven home the fact that there were people who cared about him, who wanted him with them. Slowly, Echo was spending less time alone and invisible.

This morning, Fives walked in on the end of a call between Echo, Rex, and the General. Seeing Fives hovering so uncertainly in the doorway had made Echo’s face crumble, and he threw himself into his husband’s arms for the first time since his rescue, knocking them both to the floor and kissing Fives until he thought he’d die happy from lack of oxygen. When Echo finally rolled off, Tup had leaned in over both of them, smiling.

“Mind if I take a turn?”

“I am fifty percent yours, cyare.” Fives’ laugh was giddy.

“Hm. Which half? Top or bottom, or should we just split him up the middle, E’ika?”

“No applicable regs I know of for equal resource allocation of one riduur.”

“How about two riduure?” Tup’s voice was uncertain

Echo cocked his head consideringly. “Alderaan does allow polygamy.”

“How do you know that? Why do you know that?” It’s not a squawk. Fives has never squawked.

“Read up on Alderaanian law while I’ve been recuperating. It would be ungracious of us to repay our host with a repeat of the incident on Findrus.”

“She dressed like a dancing girl! She said she was a dancing girl! She danced! Her ID said she was 24! You know we’re shit at judging regular human ages, especially with females!”

“So who was she?” Tup’s voice was dry, expecting a punchline.

Echo obliged. “The Sector Senator’s youngest but still totally legal, cheerful, enthusiastic, and very skilled daughter. Which we found out the next morning when a security detail hammered on the barracks door and things got really exciting.”

Fives just went “hmph” and crossed his arms. “You have to run to the General to get one warrant for aggravated moral turpitude dismissed and you never live it down.”

“And that is the story of why Fives and I can no longer enter the Tanabrian Sector.”

When their laughter stopped, Tup was sitting on the floor, leaning against the hallway wall with Echo’s head resting in his lap. He and Echo smiled fondly at each other, and that was it, that was everything Fives had wanted since they found Echo alive. His loves, together, safe.

Tup ran his fingers through Echo’s growing hair, stroking around ports and nodes. “Mesh’la. I wish you knew that.”

Echo stiffened and started to jerk up. Tup almost bent his spine in half to place a kiss on his forehead. “No. Mesh’la to me, to Fives. I don’t care what anyone else thinks, even you.” 

He kissed Echo again, two pairs of lips slanted across each other. “If I don’t remember this tomorrow, or next week, will you tell me again?” 

Tup ran his palm lightly over Echo’s skull, his whole hand cupped and cradling as Echo closed his eyes and nodded. Fives curled up, rested his head against Echo’s chest just to feel it rise, felt Tup’s other hand stroking down his own neck and spine.

If this can be their happy ending, okay. He’ll take it.

**Author's Note:**

> In case there is anyone who doesn't know the Mando'a by now:
> 
> cyare - beloved  
> riduur/riduure - spouse/spouses  
> mesh'la - beautiful
> 
> Yes, this was short, but the other one I'm writing--the goddamned prelude is longer than this. Curse. It.


End file.
